Affinity Photo
Photo editing as a Photoshop alternative, Graphic design with a perpetual license, General creative work as a low-cost Adobe alternative
It's a powerful, one-time-purchase alternative to Adobe for core photo and design work, but may lack some advanced features and seamless Adobe file compatibility.
Complex creative work requiring Adobe's full feature set, Collaborative workflows dependent on Adobe file formats
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FIRST-HAND READS
What people reported, in their own words. Every line links to where it was said.
“every interaction that I had with Affinity's offering came with an undesirable cognitive speedbump”
NEGATIVE · ease of use · Hacker News · 2026-05-19
“Affinity Photo has recolor and hue filters that will do just that”
POSITIVE · features · Hacker News · 2026-03-27
“I've not yet had a day where Affinity Photo just doesn't have the juice, and I don't see the appeal”
NEGATIVE · performance · Hacker News · 2026-01-13
“I adore Affinity photo for its top to bottom support for high dynamic range images. Editing RAW images is a buttery smooth dream”
POSITIVE · performance · Hacker News · 2025-10-31
“the company can't rug pull you for what you already bought. If I want, I can keep using the Affinity apps on this machine indefinitely”
POSITIVE · Hacker News · 2025-10-30
“I just finished my year long move from Photoshop to Affinity Photo… Now I have to start over again? Ugghhh…”
NEGATIVE · Hacker News · 2025-10-30
“One time payment for affinity photo/designer and couldn't be happier”
POSITIVE · price · Hacker News · 2025-03-06
“I've also tried Affinity Photo and Designer, but I definitely prefer the software I mentioned above.”
NEGATIVE · Hacker News · 2024-11-16
“I gave up on Affinity Photo after discovering that it degrades images as you edit them. Specifically, it blurs entire layers when you merge them. And it does so over and over, making the base layer worse each time. Therefore you can't trust it with your images. Affinity has refused to fix this, making excuses instead.”
NEGATIVE · reliability · Hacker News · 2024-11-01
“Affinity isn't yet good enough to replace Photoshop for work”
LUKEWARM · features · Hacker News · 2024-11-01
“Affinity Photo have my needs covered. I purchased both and they've been well worth the money.”
POSITIVE · features · Hacker News · 2024-11-01
“Affinity Photo 1 is very guilty of that, having buttons overlay each other on the left.”
NEGATIVE · ease of use · Hacker News · 2024-10-15
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